A former ER nurse opens South County’s first medical spa in Great Barrington | Business

GREAT BARRINGTON — The traditional medical spa world of Botox injections and fillers is getting the Berkshires touch.

Calla Delsignore, a Lenox Dale native and owner of a new incarnation of medical spa, says catering to a “negative self view” is not what she’s delivering at her downtown Main Street spa, L’io Beauty & Wellness.

It’s a Berkshires version; the empowering way, “a much more balanced approach,” Delsignore said. “Where it’s more about, ‘What’s gonna make you feel good? There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re beautiful. We’re all beautiful.’”

The spa is on the sunlit sixth floor, where her contractor husband did some renovating. She wanted the spa to feel “warm” rather than “sterile.” Her equipment, of course, is sterile, she said.

Delsignore, 41, is a former emergency room and primary care nurse. She is a nurse practitioner with a masters degree. She chose the location because she said she has always felt connected to the Great Barrington community. So she saw an opportunity to merge her own inspiration and skills. L’io is the third medical spa in the Berkshires and the first in South County.

L’io offers facials and chemical peels, “microneedling” and “dermaplaning” — where a scalpel is used to “gently” scrape away dead skin. There are also the more invasive procedures: “Injectables” like the wrinkle relaxant, Botox. There are fillers made of hyaluronic acid, “a naturally occurring substance in the skin that is pivotal for preserving hydration and elasticity,” L’io’s website says.

The spa is also offering “electrotherapy” using “microcurrents.” The low-level electrical currents, Delsignore says, stimulates facial muscles to improve skin tone and appearance. She’ll also soon do eyelash tinting and eyebrow grooming.

She also carries a host of mostly botanically based products from women-owned companies.

Delsignore also treats what she says are “inflammatory skin conditions” like acne and rosacea. 

She insists on thorough consultations with clients to work with their needs, she said.

“It’s not about selling or pushing products or pushing syringes,” she added.

Also working out of the L’io space on the sixth floor is board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner Christina deRis. Her practice, Ayuda Wellness, offers services that are “complementary” to L’io’s, Delsignore said.

These include hormone balancing, weight management and vitamin injections. Ayuda emphasizes “balance and harmony through medical and non-medical services, nutrition, supplementation and complementary, alternative modalities,” L’io’s website says.

Despite offering services, Delsignore says “lifestyle is everything” when it comes to healthy and good-looking skin. Does she have any tips for those of us who chicken out around needles and other sharp tools?

“Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen,” she said, adding that it should be “mineral based” to avoid the harmful chemicals.

Also: not eating too much sugar and not drinking too much alcohol. Taking and applying vitamins A and C are also helpful, since “the skin is the only organ that absorbs from the inside and outside.”

How did a nurse practitioner like Delsignore go from working in the emergency room at Berkshire Medical Center, and in primary care at Lenox Family Health, to medical esthetics?

It was, in large part, due to her 14 years working in a medical world where speedy appointments reduce time with patients. She started with high hopes.

“I wanted to teach people about preventative medicine and I was going to be this amazing, functional medicine superstar,” she said. “Instead I was seeing as many patients as I could get in and then going home and charting all night. And I couldn’t keep it up.”

Delsignore spent two years working at a medical spa. At some point, she “realized that what I was really good at was connecting with people and making them feel seen and safe and heard.”

She asked herself, “What am I good at? What do I need to do? I need to make money, and what are my skills?”